Terms

What Starbook is for

Starbook is a place to share finished astrophotos: the picture, the session behind it, how it was processed and, if you choose, the data. Any telescope or camera is welcome.

It is run by the people behind Astro Sidekick. It is free for now, with 2 GB of storage per account; paid plans may come later and will never take away what you already have without telling you first.

Photons you captured

Starbook is for pictures made from light that you, or the people you imaged with, actually recorded. Processing is welcome and expected: stacking, gradient removal, denoising, sharpening, star removal, deconvolution, and AI tools that work on your recorded data.

Images made or filled in by generative AI are not what Starbook is about, and they are not allowed. That includes inventing stars, structure or nebulosity that the camera did not record. When you upload, you confirm the picture comes from captured light.

If a moderator takes a picture down for this reason, we tell you privately and kindly, and you can write back if we got it wrong. We never put a label on anyone in public.

Your account and your username

One account per email address. Your username is your identity on Starbook: it is your gallery's address and the name on your comments and messages. Choose one you are happy to be known by; we show nothing else about you unless you add it to your profile.

Keep your password to yourself. You are responsible for what is posted from your account, including from apps you connect, such as Astro Sidekick. You can revoke a connected app at any time in Settings → Connected apps.

Your work stays yours

You keep the copyright in everything you upload. You choose a licence for the picture and, separately, for any data you share (for example a FITS stack), and we show both with your credit line.

You give Starbook only the permission it needs to run the site: to store your files, make resized copies, show them on Starbook and in share cards, and let signed-in members download them under the licence you chose. That permission ends when you delete the photo or your account, apart from backups that age out on their own.

Featured pictures

Starbook may show a picture you publish, credited to you, on its own social accounts, for example as the Image of the Day on Starbook's Facebook Page and Instagram. This is a non-exclusive licence, and it ends when the picture or your account is deleted.

Turning featuring off, for all your pictures in Settings → Featuring or for one on its edit page, stops future posts. Posts already made are removed on request: write to legal@starbook.si.

Downloads and licences

Downloads are free and open only to signed-in members. Every download is under the licence shown beside it; please respect it. "All rights reserved" means you may look and learn, not republish.

Reprocessing someone's shared data is encouraged where the licence allows it. Credit the person who captured it, and say that the processing is yours.

Be decent

Comment on pictures, not people. No harassment, hate, spam, or someone else's work passed off as yours. Don't use the site to collect other members' personal details.

Anyone can report a photo, comment, message or account. Moderators can hide or remove content and suspend accounts that break these rules; we keep a private record of every such action and the reason for it.

Copyright complaints

If you believe something on Starbook infringes your copyright, send us a notice through the DMCA page. We take the content down while we look at it, and the person who posted it can send a counter-notice.

Leaving

You can delete your account at any time from Settings → Account. Your photos and their files are deleted, your comments stay in their threads under "deleted user", and everything else tied to your account goes. There is no grace period: deletion happens at once.

The service

We work to keep Starbook running and your files safe, but the site is provided as it is, without guarantees. Keep your own copies of your pictures and data; Starbook is a place to share them, not your only backup.

We may change these terms as the site grows. If a change matters, we will say so on the site before it takes effect.

Governing law

[To be decided by Mike before launch: which country's law governs these terms, and where disputes are heard.] Questions about these terms: legal@starbook.si.